


fifty thousand versus one

by cinerious



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, I try, Kinda, Soulmate AU, barry becomes the flash though, in which your soulmate isnt always your... soulmate??, its more like a soulmate au gone wrongish, like a lot of the stuff that happens in the show stays canon but with the soulmate au in place
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:11:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6319672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinerious/pseuds/cinerious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the clock ticks down to zero.</p>
<p>Barry Allen grows an inch taller, turns eighteen, shines a flashlight at his wrist, and his heart comes to a slamming stop. </p>
<p>the name on his wrist is not Iris West.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fifty thousand versus one

3.

 

Barry remembers being eight and the first time he really gets a grasp on the word _soulmate_.

He’s eating lunch and Becky Cooper is sauntering up to his table and proudly saying that ten years from now, she might end up with one of them, so if one of them would please give her a cookie. He asks how she knows, and she sticks out her wrist, explaining how when she turns eighteen, pale milky skin will be replaced with a name, and _watch out Barry Allen, that could be you!_

He nods like he understands completely but when his father comes home he asks how two words on your skin can decide who you spend the rest of your life with. His father looks at him, then rolls up his right sleeve and points to a name in black across his wrist- _Nora Allen_ \- and says, “It’s not just two words- it’s a bond that’s always been there, something you don’t realize is missing until you find it, and then you do and it;s like your entire life changes for the better.”

Barry’s always been a bright child, but he’s never comprehended the vastness of the world, the number of people out there who could be his soulmate, tethered to him in a way beyond words can explain. However, he’s eight- he figures ten years is a long time, and if wherever he ends up is as good as now, he’s fine with that.

Three years later, he turns eleven, grows another inch, realizes he will be starting middle school, and can do nothing as his entire life comes to a standstill. 

Barry Allen watches his mother become engulfed in a storm of yellow lightning, and cries of his father's innocence as Henry Allen is carted off to prison, and then doesn't say a word as Joe West offers to be his guardian. 

 

Eleven is seven years left.

Eleven is the worst year of his life.

Eleven is also the year of Iris West.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2\. 

Barry is fifteen when he first notices that Iris West is _pretty_.

Iris is the loud to his quiet, the one who urges him into doing things he never would have done otherwise- dragging him to parties and convincing him to jump off the highest diving board, making him try a cigarette for the first and only time. (He gags and spits, asks her why she ever thought smoking was a good idea- she laughs at him and says she’s never even tried it before, and now there’s no way and he think he should be slightly offended at being her cigarette guinea pig but all he can do is laugh along with her.)

Iris also believes that the concept of a soulmate, something Barry swears by, can be taken with a grain of salt.

 

They are sitting on the bleachers during a football game, and Iris points at some blond player twice Barry’s size, and says, “ Jack Thompson’s pretty cute, right?”

Barry rolls his eyes and replies, “There’s literally a one in _seven billion_ chance that he will be your soulmate.”

Iris says, “Barry, we’re fifteen, that’s still three years to go! You can sit around and wait for your Chosen One to show up, but until then, I figure anyone’s fair game.”

He doesn’t say anything, because she’s not entirely wrong.

 

This is what he tells himself when she pushes him into asking Becky Cooper out junior year, and when he breaks up with her and feels nothing, he decides it’s proof that he’s only compatible with one person on the entire planet. He didn’t feel entirely happy with Becky, and he doesn’t feel entirely happy now, and despite his staunch belief that everything can be explained, he can’t just science and math and logic his way out of his feelings.

Later, when he sees Iris and the football player holding hands in the hallways, he realizes he’s upset because if Iris believes that anyone is “fair game”, he wants to be the one whispering in her ear and lending her his sweatshirt. He wants to be the one taking her out to ice cream on a Saturday night, and he wants to be the one telling her that he hopes one day he will wake up to find her name scrawled across his arm.

Because in three years, he thinks it wouldn’t be so bad for the name Iris West to appear on his wrist in pretty, curling letters. In fact, no matter how hard he tries, or pretends to try, a future that doesn't have Iris in it also happens to be one that is pretty much impossible to imagine.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

1.

By the time Barry is seventeen, he is convinced that no one but Iris is supposed to be his soulmate, because if it were anyone else, would he notice the way her hair swings around in a ponytail when she runs?

The way her entire face lights up when she laughs at something Joe says over dinner, or the way her arms feel around him when she hugs him and screams in his ear after he takes first at a science fair?

Hell, even the way she coerces him into finishing her homework because, “I need to run, there’s this really interesting thing happening that I want to write about in the school newspaper please, I’ll even pay you, you’re the greatest, love you, bye!”

If Iris isn’t the person he’s meant to be with, how does he explain the way his heart races every time she casually tells him love you before racing out the door, or the rush he gets in his head every time she grabs onto his arm to steady herself after laughing too hard, or the way he instantly feels happier when she’s going on and on about her day?

 

Iris swivels through two or three more boyfriends, Barry feels something like jealousy but never says a thing, and around them, their classmates slowly turn from seventeen to eighteen and all of a sudden- the soulmate- something that’s just been an idea hanging over everyone’s heads becomes a showstopping reality.

It’s not the same for everyone- some people take to wearing long sleeves even on the hottest days of summer just to keep their names a secret, others flaunt it around like it’s a prize for discovering world peace. Barry thinks the best turn of events is Jack Thompson- who broke up with Iris a mere week after he started dating her because “sorry, I think I’m gay”- comes into school in a tie-dyed rainbow shirt and a huge smile because if his parent’s didn’t approve of his sexuality before this, the name standing out bright and black on his wrist doesn’t give them a choice.

He watches as his friends tentatively message their soulmates over Facebook, listens to people worry that they’ll never find who they’re supposed to until the week before they die, and waits with a mix of excitement and apprehension for the day he wakes up to find Iris’ name on his own wrist.

Iris is just as excited for him, perhaps more- she is one of the youngest people in their grade, and it’s easy to tell the amount of joy she gets each time another friend calls her up to inform her of the new letters that becomes a part of them. Barry doesn’t understand how she can stand to wait so long- he only has about a month to go and he feels a little more afraid as his eighteenth birthday draws closer.

 

And then it is the night before, and Iris wishes him good luck, and he smiles, because if it’s not her, who else could possibly be the right person for him? Who else will earnestly discuss zombies with him, throw flour at him while she’s baking, stand by him every time he insists his father is innocent? Above all else, he figures that there’s no one who can make him the same amount of giddy and satisfied and amazed and happy that Iris West does.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The clock ticks down to

0.

 

Barry Allen turns eighteen on March 19th and his entire world comes to a standstill for the second time. 

 

He swipes his phone open, clicks on the flashlight, and aims it down at his wrist- once smooth and pale, it now is invaded by swirling black letters.

Barry Allen grows his final inch, turns eighteen, becomes old enough to vote, and his heart comes to a slamming stop.

 

The name on his wrist is not Iris West.

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god this is my first fic, sorry if it's a little rough?? I tried my best. This is most likely going to be multichapter or I'll just make it one long one-shot I'm an indecisive freak who can't decide on anything oops. I'll try to update this as soon as I can! I live and breathe on kudos and comments, so yeah, that would be nice- also my tumblr is lukecastallen, give me a follow if you feel like it!  
> As always, thank you so much for reading!


End file.
